Scared Stiff

I felt his eyes on me before I even turned. I knew I wasn’t going to like what I saw. I inched around, hoping to catch him unaware. I silently repeated over and over, “You don’t scare me,” like a soothing mantra, hoping to convince myself of the words. Finally I spun the rest of the way and faced my nemesis.

“Oh my God!” I sucked in my breath at the sight of my nightmare. There, sitting not three feet above my head, was the biggest, hairiest, blackest spider I had ever seen in my life. How in the world had a monster this size gotten into my kitchen? He dwarfed the dinner plates in my cabinets. My heart started thudding loud enough to wake the dead. My palms couldn’t decide if they wanted to sweat or go ice cold. Paralyzed with fear, I tried to call out.

“A-A-Alex,” I managed to whisper, scared that even that little bit of sound would send the beast closer to me. No movement. I risked saying it a little louder, hoping my spouse had somehow grown super-sonic hearing within the last five minutes. “Alex.” A hairy, thin leg twitched.

Just then a miracle happened. Alex came around the corner.

“Hey Hon.”

I didn’t respond and remained in my statue like stance.

“What’s wrong with you,” Alex asked concerned.

I pointed at the monstrosity with a nod of my head.

“Oh my God!” Alex quickly grabbed the newspaper I was reading, rolled it up and defeated the dragon. “David, I can’t believe you were scared of that tiny thing.” She shook her head and went back in the other room.

“Tiny thing indeed,” I thought looking at the squished bug. “It had to be at least one inch around!”







Word count: 295